Trio Work Programme for Dutch, Slovak and Maltese presidencies approved

The Trio Work Programme for the upcoming Dutch, Slovak and Maltese presidencies of the council of the EU has been unanimously approved by all 28 member states at the general affairs council meeting of ministers held earlier today.

The approved programme is the blueprint of the legislative agenda priorities of the council of the EU for the next 18 months. The council will be presided over by the Netherlands, Slovakia and Malta respectively for the upcoming 6-month periods starting in January 2016 with the Dutch Presidency.

The programme aims to provide a framework for continuity between the three presidencies and it centres around five goals including jobs, growth and competitiveness, the empowerment and protection of all EU citizens, working towards an energy union with a forward-looking climate policy, freedom, security and justice and making the union a strong global actor.

Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech, and EU affairs parliamentary secretary Ian Borg, have held a number of meetings over the past years with their Dutch and Slovak counterparts in order to make the programme one which establishes a renewed approach over past Trios.

A statement by the Office of the deputy prime minister reads that the goal is to make the document less technical and easier to read by citizens.

“We want people to understand what the 18-month work programme of the Council will be by streamlining the programme and going straight to the issues,” it adds.

It further explains that the programme seeks to address both the concerns of EU citizens as well as their ambitions for what they want the EU to accomplish.

“This also means that Malta has ensured emphasis on Malta’s own priorities, notably that of prioritising long term and durable solutions to addressing migration flows.”

 Malta and its Trio partners will in fact, focus on the development of the Common European Asylum System, efforts on relocation, resettlement, returns and readmission, as well as the battle against human trafficking.

“Malta will also work to strengthen the security of the EU, including against groups with extremist and violent ideologies, while other priorities which the country has targeted, range from continuing work in strengthening the single market in order to ensure a socially responsible dimension and support Malta’s economic growth to working on completing the energy union,” the statement further adds.

The deputy Prime Minister also explained that the renewed approach to the Trio Work Programme means that it is a living document that  is adaptable to inevitable, unforeseen issues that may present themselves in the next year-and-a-half.

“This gives the three Presidencies the ability to tailor their specific work programmes to the exigencies dictated by developments in the interim.”

According to the statement, Malta’s specific Presidency work Programme will be presented closer to the country’s own Presidency, which begins on 1st January 2017.